Tuesday, September 29, 2015

I have faith in my story, IDEAL HIGH, and feel like if more people out there knew about it, then it could reach its target audience, and maybe even do some good. Sure, it's fun that so many have read it and enjoyed it, and I appreciate EVERY SINGLE review, really, thank you, (see reviews here) but I'd love it to impact teenagers...kids in high school and junior high right now going through some of the things my main characters Taryn, Chelsea, and Jackie face in my book. I received an email from a young lady named Meghan saying she loved the book, and I guess I would love more of that, so I've hired a publicist.

I'll keep you posted on how that goes...

I've had two amazing editions to my family this month by way of a wedding and a birth, and they just serve to highlight what's most important...FAMILY!

Who doesn't love a sale?The Kindle version of IDEAL HIGH is on sale this week for just $1.99! A bunch of other e-books have been discounted as well, so check them out plus please share the love and pass this on to your friends who might be interested. Share on Facebook and Twitter, too.

Lauren Wilson is well on her way to her happily-ever-after. She’s passionate about her career as a middle school English teacher, she adores her handsome, hard-working husband, and with a baby finally on the way, her perfect life is within her grasp.But then a devastating test result changes everything.Forced to choose between her baby and her husband, Lauren makes the only decision she can live with, and she returns to her small hometown in hopes of rebuilding her shattered life.Ethan Campbell is a gifted photographer who travels the world and has no desire to settle down. When his mother dies, he must go home to settle her estate. Then it’s back to exciting adventures across the globe.When Lauren crosses paths with Ethan, her teenage crush, old feelings resurface—feelings she’s not prepared to face. Will Lauren have the courage to trust again or will she spend her life alone?
Imperfect Love is a story about sacrifice, healing, second chances, and discovering that although love isn’t always perfect, sometimes it’s the imperfect love that’s the sweetest of all.

Purchase A Change of PlansAudiobook (If you own the eBook, the audiobook is only $1.99)
When Lyn sets off on her supposedly uncomplicated and unromantic cruise, she never dreams it will include pirates. All the 25-year-old Colorado high school teacher wants is to forget that her dead fiancé was a cheating scumbag. What she plans is a vacation diversion; what fate provides is Braedon, an intriguing surgeon. She finds herself drawn to him: his gentle humor, his love of music, and even his willingness to let her take him down during morning karate practices. Against the backdrop of the ship’s make-believe world and its temporary friendships, her emotions come alive.However, fear is an emotion, too. Unaware of the sensitive waters he navigates, Braedon moves to take their relationship beyond friendship—on the very anniversary Lyn came on the cruise to forget. But Lyn’s painful memories are too powerful, and she runs off in a panic.Things are bad enough when the pair finds themselves on one of the cruise’s snorkeling excursions in American Samoa. However, paradise turns to piracy when their party is kidnapped. Lyn’s fear of a fairytale turns grim. Now she must fight alongside the man she rejected, first for their freedom and then against storms, sharks, and shipwreck.

When she finds herself
thrust back in time, 17 year old Bess Martin, a senior at Danvers High, sets
out on a mission to save her 11th great-grandmother from the gallows-tree. With
a near-perfect knowledge of the historical events about to unfold, Bess knows
the untimely fate of many.

The problem is that Bess has inherited her
grandmother’s sharp tongue—a tongue that caused her grandmother to be tried and
hanged as a witch in Salem Village, 1692.

Can Bess stop the hangings and change
the course of history, or will she share her grandmother’s fate?

Tales of adventure and
danger have thrilled Felicity since Augustus, her ivory-billed woodpecker
friend, taught her to read as a little nestling. She adores the tales of heroes
and heroines who forge ahead in spite of all odds, and who always seem to
succeed no matter what. More than anything, Felicity wants to be brave and
selfless like them.

But
adventures are in short supply, especially for someone who’s just an ordinary
sparrow.

Until the
day an unexpected visitor shows up at her tree with an unusual request…

The housing market is crashing, and Sophie’s life is crashing with it. At twenty-four, her successful real estate career evaporates. She’s broke, can’t find a job, or pay her bills, leaving Sophie wondering how her successful lifestyle became so fragile.

At the urging of her roommate, Sophie accepts a job in her fallback career—teaching six-year-olds. She hopes it’s temporary. After all, how long can a tanking economy last anyway? The best part of the new job is Liam, another employee at Rio Grande Elementary. The worst part of the new job is, well, teaching.

Sophie has a surprise real estate closing from a contract she wrote months ago, leading her to a niche in the real estate market and to a new partner, Kevin. Sophie must choose between Liam or Kevin and between a lucrative career or recess duty.

For months, Christopher Morris has been Brooke's idea of the perfect man—attractive, charming, and fun to be around. But lately he's begun acting strangely, becoming possessive, controlling, and moody. Brooke feels she has no choice but to break up with him, but Christopher doesn't take it well. He drives her wildly back home and gets into a car accident.

That's when Brooke first meets police officer Greg Stevens. After she keeps meeting him—at the worst possible times—they begin dating. Greg confesses he's a widower and that Brooke is the first woman he has so much as looked at in years.

But as Brooke agonizes over whether Greg will ever be able to truly love her, Christopher makes a dangerous return into her life, deciding that if he can't have her, no one can.

When young cavalryman Carl Owen returns from the Civil War, he finds the family farm destroyed, his favorite brother dead, food scarce, and his father planning to leave the Shenandoah Valley to start a cattle operation in Colorado Territory.

But Pa does a bit more: he also chooses a suitable mate for both Carl and his younger brother, James.

With no one else in mind, Carl is agreeable to marrying the delightfully flirtatious Ida Hilbrands somewhere along the trail, but James is devastated. Ellen Bates isn't the girl he loves and must leave behind.

Making their way across the vast continent, the Owen family and their friends battle a prairie fire, internal strife, a band of vicious outlaws, and the land itself to try to achieve their goals, but before that can happen, the two brothers are fighting over the hand of one girl—and only one of them can win!

Her father has been accused of stealing from the king, an allegation that has reduced her family to poverty. She has one chance to find and marry a man who can help her prove her father's innocence. Lord Therri, heir to a rich barony, has the wealth and connections Mathilde needs to delve into the mysteries of her father's past. Furthermore, Therri embodies all her romantic dreams.

Etienne, the younger son of a disgraced family, has neither wealth nor connections, but is smitten with Mathilde at a glance. She finds the knight intriguing, but believes he is only out to seduce her. While she seeks for a way to win Therri's attention, Etienne tricks her into granting him her favor, an embroidered white ribbon, for a tournament, setting in motion a dangerous chain reaction of events.

Can Etienne save Mathilde from a nightmare from her past and prove himself the true hero of her dreams?

Finley isn’t exactly sure when her life began to feel unfamiliar. She suspects the transformation started long before she caught her husband and fellow garden club member doing the white-trash-two-step on her new Bernhardt sofa. Now free from the shackles of a loveless marriage, and with her children off to college, she’s finally able to go searching for the missing pieces of her heart.

Finley’s best friend, Cathyanne, is already working hard to ensure that Finley finds true love this time around. But when Finley is unwittingly tossed into the arms of two men—their sexy trainer and her neighbor, a popular country star—Cathyanne fears finding the right guy will be more complicated than she ever could have imagined.

For Finley, building a new life feels as impossible as flying a paper airplane to the moon. But maybe, just maybe, with the right help, she will find her whole heart—even if it’s in the very last place she thinks to look.

A Compelling Story of Heartbreaking Loss, Inspiring Faith, and a Newfound Love Strong Enough to Heal All Wounds.

Bill Dubrey is a sought-after plastic surgeon for LA’s prestigious and wealthy, and an equally sought-after bachelor. On the surface it appears he has it all—money, respect, and fame. Yet behind his aloof exterior lurks a tragic past that prevents him from finding lasting happiness.

All that changes on the day Kylee Stewart reenters his life. She alone knows Bill’s secret agony, and she is determined to help him face his past. During the years they’ve been apart, Kylee’s own life has been far from easy, but unlike Bill, she has turned to God in her need, finding a faith to which she desperately clings.

The tentative friendship they begin has Bill rethinking his stark future, yet he keeps his heart in check—afraid to commit, afraid to lose again. During Kylee’s darkest moment, when she needs him most, will he be there for her?

Chuck McWilliams is fourteen years old and had just started high school in Washington State when his father lost his job and moved them to the hot, dry, valley of Central California. Starting his freshman year six weeks after the rest of the students, Chuck is insecure about finding his way, making new friends and overcoming bullying from members of the cross country team.

When he is invited to the Homecoming Dance by a strange girl in his English class, Kelsey Llewellyn, he can't think of any reason to say no. Later that day Dahlia Chand, an attractive girl on the cross country team, asks him to the dance, he wonders if he has made a mistake.

How a secretive student, Doug Le Roux, avoids the notice of the rest of the students, yet stands out so clearly to Chuck makes him wonder if something extraordinary is going on at this high school.

Chuck will become entwined in an ages old battle with werewolves, vampires and elves that most of humankind is unaware of in their midst. Remarkably, he will find the most enchanting magic comes from romance.

When wedding planner Keslee gets asked on a date by her long-lost high school crush, Bryce, everything should be perfect. But Bryce mistakes Keslee for her deceased twin sister, Jadyn. And Keslee doesn’t correct him. Talk about awkward. To make matters worse, she learns they’ll be seeing a lot more of each other because Bryce is the marketing director at the venue where Keslee’s new client has chosen to get married. Keslee knows the charade can’t last much longer, and fears she’ll lose Bryce forever when she tells him the truth.

What would you do if one night, life as
you know it changes and you are left alone in despair? That is how Emerine’s
nightmare starts and now all he does is run.

His family lived at the edge of the forest
until dark shadows killed them all. Now they want him, and so does a magic
tree. He has never seen dark shadows or enchanted trees before. Emerine has to
get to the heart of Red Forest, to the fairy people. Only then he will be safe.
Safe? He has never heard of fairies before and once he gets there what?

We have a fantastic line-up of great books that are on SALE! Everyone loves a sale, right?

What's special about Cassandra? Absolutely nothing. She's as ordinary as any other fifth grader. And yet her ordinary life is riddled with hilarious and sometimes heart-breaking mishaps as she guides herself through the world of pre-teens on the brink of adulthood.

Cassandra Jones is the new girl at school. She's been uprooted from her beloved state of Texas and relocated to the hillbilly Ozarks of Springdale, Arkansas. She wonders if she will like her teacher or if she will have any friends. She can only hope school won't be harder than it was back home. She doesn't expect to have two close friends, and even worse, two friends that don't like each other. As she tries to make a spot for herself, will she keep her friendships intact?

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

We live in an age of information. It comes to us through our phones, computers, and other devices, and sometimes, still, even a BOOK! It's almost unfathomable, then, that there are adults throughout the world who cannot read. Is the information age just passing them by? But, really, isn't it more than just not knowing what the popular bloggers are saying or missing out on the latest bestseller?

From grammerly.com: "Illiteracy is more than just a lack of reading skills. Around the world, it is a clear predictor of poverty, illness, and disempowerment. It’s not a problem confined to the developing world, either. Even in the United States, there are thirty-two million adults who cannot read, according to the U.S. Department of Education."

Celebrate literacy by donating to a *good literacy cause or check with your local library to find out ways you can help.

Monday, September 7, 2015

I'm not purposely keeping secrets from my blog, but I realize there are several fun writing things I haven't even mentioned here. I mean what's the purpose of a blog if it doesn't know all so that it can tell all???

In an effort to inform, I'll start with something super fun that happened last April concerning my novel IDEAL HIGH...

While this is just the first step in the process (the finalists will be announced next February) it still means a lot to me. I remember so vividly attending my 1st LDStorymakers Conference in Provo, Utah all those years ago. I felt such a great writerly camaraderie there, and that excitement literally exploded at the Whitney Awards banquet held at the close of conference. (No, not literally, it's just a pun.) To have my very own book honored by the Whitney Committee is a huge deal.

I also blog at these "spots"

CURRENTLY READING:

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt (for book club)

Half the Skyby Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

The Book of Mormonby various authors

Out of the mouths of writerly people

"Once the disease of reading has laid hold upon the system it weakens it so that it falls an easy prey to that other scourge which dwells in the inkpot and festers in the quill. The wretch takes to writing." --Virginia Woolf

"...it's easy after all not to be a writer. Most people aren't writers and very little harm comes to them." --Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot